Many people first became aware of emotional intelligence by reading a book by journalist Dan Goleman.
However, the theory of EI was developed by Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey back in 1990. They modified their theory in 1997:
"Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth".
EI is a set of hard skills; it predicts important life outcomes - although it is not the most important skill or attribute. The ability model is a great theory with incredible practical, everyday applications.
The four hard skills are the ability to Perceive, Facilitate, Understand and Manage emotions. Each ability has its own characteristics and all work together to form emotional intelligence. We use the more memorable labels of Map (Perceive), Match (Use/Facilitate), Meaning (Understand) and Move (Manage), for better retention.
We define EI as a broad intelligence, and we measure it objectively using the MSCEIT (Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test). This is critical because most people overestimate their EI and the more they overestimate their EI, the less interested they are in developing the skills!
It's a very practical theory and we've been using the 4 abilities of EI that we call the EI Blueprint, for more than 20 years.
You first Perceive or Map emotions (yours and others) and then you Match those emotions to the task or to other people (connect with them). These experiences are further analyzed, and you Understand the meaning of emotions - what caused them, what they are called, how they may change. Finally, you Move and Manage these emotions. If the emotions are helpful, you still need to make slight adjustments to maintain them and if the emotions are not helpful you engage in strategies to alter them.
EI Skills Collaborative offers certification courses to those who want to assess EI skills or who want to coach and develop others’ EI skills.
